The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz

In 1939, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was at the height of its powers as a studio producing the most lavish films in Hollywood. The Wizard of Oz, one of its touchstone productions that year (along with Gone with the Wind), has been enshrined into the pantheon of American art, but wasn’t initially a smash success. The film tells the familiar tale of Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto, who are transported from Kansas wheat fields via a tornado that touches them down in the land of Oz. They team up with the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow to battle the evil Wicked Witch of the West on their quest to meet the Wizard, who might be able to help them get back home. To get there, however, each of them must confront their greatest fears. Or is it all just a dream? A troubled and expansive production, The Wizard of Oz has only gained in stature since its initial release over 75 years ago and remains a delight for audiences of all ages. “A terrific, fresh experience. It’s not always a great movie but it’s one that’s so charged every moment of it, charged with magic.”—Daniel Kasman, MUBI.

Under the leadership of the tragic figure Irving Thalberg, by 1933 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the house of Hollywood glamour, producing sophisticated, slick films that often dealt with the lives of the upper classes—which makes Bombshell a strange case. It’s a portrait of a gilded woman, the wildly successful movie star Lola Burns (Jean Harlow), as she …

Paramount Pictures paid $50,000 for Sinclair Lewis’s justifiably forgotten novel MANTRAP, but happily, screenwriters Ethel Doherty and Adelaide Heilbron turned Lewis’s misogynistic tirade into a light-as-a-feather comedy romp. New York lawyer Ralph Prescott and a friend escape city life on a camping trip near Mantrap, Canada, but soon find themselves out of their depth. After …